Lesson 7. Gantt Charts. In this lesson, you learn what a Gantt chart is, why it is so useful in project management, variations you can devise, and how to use Gantt charts to keep your project on schedule. | Lesson 5. Assembling Your Plan In this lesson you learn how to further refine your work breakdown structure WBS whether your labor should be part of the WBS the importance of reintegrating project staff as the project winds down and distinctions between the WBS and other planning tools. The Critical Path for Completing the WBS Before a project was assigned to you an authorizing party or committee determined that it needed to be executed. They allocated resources to the project. At the least initially this included costs of your services. They may have also formally or informally made assignments of plant equipment and human resources to the project. Plain English Critical path The longest complete path of a project. At some point you were summoned. You discussed the desired objective how long the project will take the key events in pursuit of the final objective and whether or not the project should have distinct phases. Perhaps a feasibility study was already done. Maybe there were notes and other documents that enabled you to get a running start as to what you would be required to do. Often your initial assignment is to define your own role and present your definition to the authorizing party or committee. Once the decision was made to launch the project and once you were given the formal go-ahead laying out your plan developing the WBS and presentation to your superiors became the order of the day such as that depicted in the chart shown in the figure below. Laying out the plan. Hem J F Jvl A M J J A S 0 N D Project Launch Sponsor Approval Plan Development WBS Presentation and Approval Implementation The basic activities involved to complete the WBS are as follows Identify the events or task and subtasks associated with them. They are paramount to achieving the desired objective. Plot them using an outline a tree diagram or combination thereof to determine the most efficient sequence. Estimate the level of effort required usually in terms of person days and .
